Pro-enterprise tort rules reflected broad consensus rather than judicial conspiracy

Evidence

But was Shaw, a brilliant jurist, consciously trying to bolster the railroads? To give them, in effect, a legal subsidy? Probably not intentionally. But he must have been aware that it was popular to encourage the railroads. Of course, the railroads themselves liked this kind of decision; but so no doubt did the ordinary farmer or merchant, eager to get his goods to the market. It can hardly be an accident, that emerging doctrines of tort law tilted toward enterprise. But this was consensus, no doubt, rather than conspiracy. — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 1799

Categorization

• XREF: Qualifies the standard economic-determinist reading; relevant to the course’s discussion of whose interests law serves. — connects to: English and American tort law grew independently from shared industrial causes — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 2680; Partisan defunding incentives partly drove Republican adoption of tort reform — Daryl Levinson and Benjamin I. Sachs, Political Entrenchment and Public Law, 263; Anti-dynastic trust law reflected market ideology, not hostility to wealth — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 1508 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Partisan defunding incentives partly drove Republican adoption of tort reform #complicates (0.85) — Daryl Levinson and Benjamin I. Sachs, Political Entrenchment and Public Law, 263
• Anti-dynastic trust law reflected market ideology, not hostility to wealth #corroborates (0.78) — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 1508
• English and American tort law grew independently from shared industrial causes #corroborates (0.75) — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 2680